Event | UVA Arts

"A Standing Witness has the potential to become one of the most influential compositions of this century." ~ Vermont Public Radio

A Standing Witness: Thursday, March 21 • 7:30pm • Old Cabell Hall • Tickets

Richard Danielpour, Colloquium: Friday, March 22 • 4:00pm • 107 Old Cabell Hall

A Standing Witness: Saturday, March 23 • 7:30pm • Old Cabell Hall • Tickets • Talkback with Composer Richard Danielpour & Rita Dove • 6:30pm • Old Cabell Hall

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UVA Arts will present A Standing Witness, a powerful and provocative song cycle collaboration between Grammy Award-winning composer Richard Danielpour and Pulitzer Prize-winner, former U.S. Poet Laureate, and UVA faculty member Rita Dove on Thursday, March 21 and Saturday, March 23 at 7:30 PM at Old Cabell Hall. The piece will feature internationally renowned mezzo soprano Susan Graham along with the acclaimed chamber ensemble Music from Copland House.

A Standing Witness is a 75-minute-long cycle of 14 songs and one instrumental elegy that is a sweeping retrospective of momentous events and eras in American history over the past half-century from the perspective of an observer who has seen it all yet is not revealed until the epilogue. By highlighting and remarking upon historic events ranging from the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert F. Kennedy to Vietnam War, the Civil Rights Movement, Woodstock, 9/11 and more, Dove challenges audiences to truly consider what it is to be an American with this collection of “songs you need to hear” (Opera News) that Vermont Public Radio has said has “the potential to become one of the most influential compositions of the century.”

A Standing Witness is presented with the generous support of The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, the UVA Arts Council, The Gassmann Fund for Innovation in Music & the Department of Music at UVA.